Colorado refuge could see wolves

Feb. 9, 2012

Wolves are making news and stirring emotions in other places besides Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Since the gray wolf has been removed from the Endangered Species List the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin have begun planning hunting or trapping seasons.

On the flip side, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering introducing wolves to the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado.

According to the Milwaukee Journal and Reuters news agency, there are now more gray wolves in Minnesota, about 3,000, than any other state in the lower 48 states.

Minnesota legislators are debating a proposal to allow hunting and trapping seasons in November that would permit 400 gray wolves to be killed.

Wisconsin is issuing wolf kill permits to selected landowners and farmers and Wisconsin legislators are considering a hunting and trapping bill.

Reuters says the Minnesota plan is prompting opponents of the plan to consider a court challenge.

In all, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan have a total of about 4,000 gray wolves.

There were fewer than 750 gray wolves in Minnesota in the 1950s. The population had grown to about 2,900 by the late 1990s, a level that has not changed significantly since, according to state natural resources department estimates.

Minnesota state officials plan to allow 400 gray wolves to be killed in a hunting season in late November and believe the population could sustain a higher quota.

The 1,200 wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are a separate population from the wolves in the Upper Midwest. Those wolves were removed from the endangered species list last year under the Simpson-Tester language added to other Congressional action.

Wolves to Colorado

Meanwhile the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers an alternative in its new plan for the San Luis Valley NWR in Colorado that would use wolves to keep elk numbers down to improve plant life.

"The elk populations would be reduced on the refuge complex primarily through hunting and kept at a level that would foster recovery and improve the long-term health of native plant communities. The Service would explore the potential for wolf reintroduction for balancing wildlife populations. ....habitats for native species or threatened, endangered or other species of concern would be improved."

The alternative that includes re-introducing wolves is not the favored alternative and in fact it is a distant third, but it is there.

The planning document applies to a National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado, but comments from any citizen of the U.S. would be accepted.

Anyone wanting issue their comment on the proposal should contact the USFWS through Planning Team Leader Laurie Shannon, PO Box 25486, Denver, Colo., 80225-0486 or call her at 308-236-4792.